Soldier's son presented 70-year-old dog tags found on beach

SALISBURY, Mass. (AP) — Dog tags a U.S. soldier lost on a Massachusetts beach 70 years ago have been returned to his son at the same place.

Zachariah Fike (FYKE), head of Vermont-based Purple Hearts Reunited, says the military ID belonged to World War II veteran Cpl. William Benn, who lost them in 1939 at a coastal artillery placement on Salisbury Beach.

Metal detector enthusiast Bill Ladd found them after a storm last year.

Fike and Ladd gave the tags to William Benn of Providence, Rhode Island, on Sunday afternoon.

Cpl. Benn manned a gun during the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. He was awarded the Silver Star for shooting down several Japanese aircraft the next year as a tail gunner on a B-17 bomber at the Battle of Midway.